Blog Survey – Some Highlights

On By TontowilliamsIn Uncategorized

As regular readers will know I ran a blog survey during February. It’s the second year that I’ve done so, with an aim to see what it is that people like about the blog (and dislike), their favourite types of posts and a few other things.

I sat down yesterday to go through the results, and to randomly pick the winner of the £10 Amazon voucher, which has now been sent to them.

Thanks to everyone who took part, I’d like to have sent everyone a voucher as a thank you, but that would have been a trifle expensive! So if you didn’t win, thanks for helping me out with your time and views.

So some highlights from the survey.

Q. How long have you been reading this blog?

It seems things are pretty evenly split with half of respondents having been reading for 2 or more years, and the other half, a year or less.

Q. Which post types do you like the most?

There’s quite a bit of detail in the answers here, as I asked you to rank your answers in order of preference. However by far and away the most popular are allotment and gardening posts, followed in a close second by Quick Links, with cooking posts coming third.

Q. What media do you prefer in posts?

Text was the most popular answer here, with a mix of text and video or pictures a close second.

Q. What would you like to see in the future?

Again this question has a lot of detail, as it also asked you to rank from a lot less to a lot more. It seems though, that most people are happy with the post types as they are, although again allotment and gardening posts, and Quick Links were asked for “a little more” or “a lot more” in a few responses, as were nature posts.

This is one of the most important set of responses for me in helping shape future content. I’m pleased that it seems most people are happy with the balance at the moment, but obviously I can write more in those areas that seem more popular going forward.

Q. I’m thinking of starting a monthly (or possibly weekly) newsletter. This is likely to replace the Quick Links weekly posts. It would require an email subscription rather than being something that would appear by default on the blog.Would you be interested in signing up this?

Nearly everybody said yes. I have to say I’m not sure when this will happen, but it does seem that there is a demand for it. I’ll be giving this some serious thought over the coming days, so stay tuned!

Q. Demographics

I asked a couple of demography questions which I’ll aggregate a little here. The age group of my readers spans from 25 to 55 and is evenly split between male and female.

Obviously this is based solely on those that completed the survey and answered these questions (there was a “prefer not to say” option here, which a few people used, which is fine with me). So the actual answers might be different.

So there you have it. Thanks again to all those of you who took the time to complete the survey, and also thank you for being a reader of this blog.

Potting On Tomato Seedlings

On By TontowilliamsIn Fork To Fork, Garden / Allotment, Self-sufficient2 Comments

2017-03-01-13-59-58

I spent a little time yesterday afternoon potting on my tomato seedlings. They’ve reached the point where they now have a good set of “true leaves” and are ready to be moved on.

[A quick aside. “True” leaves are the first leaves on a seedling that actually look like those on the adult plant, and not the “seed” leaves that are the first to appear. Potting on seedlings before they have their true leaves can mean that the seedlings won’t survive the transplanting, and it is more likely that you’ll damage the seedling moving it to it’s new home. I’ve seen a few pictures in the last few days where a keen gardener has potted on a seedling without true leaves. They might be lucky, but the seedlings stand a better chance with the patient gardener.]

2017-03-01-14-00-04

I start by getting the new modules ready, filling them with good quality, multi-purpose compost. I know roughly how many seedlings there are, barring clumsy fingers, so I prepare all my modules beforehand.

2017-03-01-14-01-20

Next I prepare a hole for each new seedling. One per module using my handy dibber pencil.

2017-03-01-14-02-09

Then carefully I tease them out of their current home with the tip of the same pencil, being careful to keep as much of the seedlings root as possible. Being gentle and not yanking them out of the soil, will reduce any transplant shock and help them to establish in their new modules faster. Also handle them by the leaves and not the stem. Picking them up by the stem, can break the stem and you’ll loose the seedling. It seems a little
counter-intuitive but it works.

2017-03-01-14-12-15

When I’m done, I move the module trays into gravel trays to help with watering, and give the seedlings a little drink around the top of the compost. Again being careful not to drown the seedlings and squash them under a deluge of water.

These now go back indoors to a warm and sunny spot e.g. a windowsill. They’re not ready to plant out yet, it’s too cold and they’re not big enough. I’ll probably pot them on again once more, before putting them in their final growing spot, once they have their first flowering truss.

The Unreported Issues of Breadmaking

On By TontowilliamsIn Cooking2 Comments

If you’re trying to sell a house there’s some advice that says you should brew coffee or make bread just before a viewing to create a favourable atmosphere (and nice smell).

What no one tells you about making bread is that the smell can also be a massive distraction.

You’ll know if you’re a regular reader that we have a breadmaker and bake our own bread in it. In fact we’ve just recently bought a new one to replace our old, much used and worn out machine.

This morning I put the breadmaker on, in order to bake a loaf, so that we could have some later on with the soup that I’m planning for dinner this evening, and also possibly a sneaky bread and jam treat for lunchtime.

It is however a massive distraction. Not because it’s a noisy machine, far from it. It’s the smell, the gorgeous aroma of bread baking in the kitchen, which happens to be right next to my office, where I am trying not to drown in my own saliva, and instead concentrate on work. The timer says that there is about 50 minutes left to go for this loaf before it’s ready, just in time for lunch. Before then however I have a phone call to make and things that I need to focus on.

Nothing like freshly baked bread to help focus the mind!

Quick Links 27th February 2017

On By TontowilliamsIn Quick Links

Each week I’ll try and post quick links to things that I’ve seen, read, inspired me or just sparked my interest in the previous week, with a little background and my thoughts and other things that I’ve been up to in the previous week. Mostly gardening, cooking and environmental stuff but not always.

Life In General.

It’s been a busy week, mostly with work related stuff (see below) but I’m still working through things on my Grandma’s and my Dad’s estates. It’s difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel on either of these at the moment, but it does make me realise that there are things in my own life that need to be more in order in case anything were ever to happen to me, particularly if it was unexpected. I also attended the scattering of my Grandma’s ashes.

Work.

A few work related meetings this week, and also another bid to prepare which was due on Friday. I did my bit at the start of the week, so assume that it got submitted, but I haven’t had it confirmed as yet.

I also had a meeting with a second group of students from Solent University. This group are helping me look at ways to grow my existing business. A lot of my work is with repeat customers, so that’s fine, until something happens. Hopefully they will help me to find new customers too.

Currently Reading

Armada by Ernest Cline [GoodReads] – I also wrote about this earlier last week

A Search for Solitude: Pursuing the Monk’s True Life (Journals Vol. 3) by Thomas Merton [GoodReads]

Wizard and Glass by Stephen King [GoodReads]. The next book in the Dark Tower series,  a book I’m reading for an online group.

Jaguar Vs. Giant Anteater – It sounds a bit like some 70’s b-movie title, but the camera trap video shows just how little we see of what is actually going on out in the wild [LINK]

The Week In Wildlife – In Pictures

New Life In The Solar System – I’m always interested when these sorts of stories are published, but it looks like we’re a long way from knowing what if anything is out there [LINK]

Still Posting Daily

On By TontowilliamsIn writing1 Comment

I started this post-a-day thing, back on December 11th 2016, with the initial intention of going until the end of the year, but seem to have managed to carry it on to this point at least.

There have been a couple of days when I’ve been posting quite late in the day, and have nearly broken the chain, but I’ve managed it so far. Some posts are written a few days in advance (this is one of them), which helps me with scheduling and other things happening, and others are more spur of the moment.

Making no promises I’m going to keep going for now and just see what happens. I don’t want to feel forced into writing daily (and I don’t at the moment), but I also have the little voice in the back of my head telling me not to break the chain!

First Overwintering Broccoli From the Allotment

On By TontowilliamsIn Fork To Fork, Garden / Allotment, Self-sufficient

2017-02-25-08-52-28

It’s a variety called “marathon”, that I sowed back in the autumn, and is now ready to be harvested. I also cut some cavalo nero (black kale), so we should be eating well tonight!

As this broccoli matures it should work in well with the purple sprouting broccoli, which isn’t ready yet but will be in the not too distant future, and also some cauliflowers that appear to be doing well, but again, aren’t quite producing curds yet.

Storm Doris Aftermath

On By TontowilliamsIn Garden / Allotment4 Comments

Storm Doris hit the UK yesterday. The middle of the Country was probably the worst affected area, but we had some pretty wicked winds here (much worse than when I last wrote about a storm).

I walked the dogs around the woods yesterday morning, which was before the worst of the winds hit, but on our afternoon walk it was too windy to feel safe walking there, so I stayed out on the playing fields. The wind was so strong that on one occasion a strong gust made me stagger a bit, nearly blowing me off of my feet.

It made for a good exercise regime for the dogs though, as with the wind behind me their balls were going about four times further than I can normally throw them!

This morning I went down to the allotment, as is my want to do, following a storm. My plot was fine, but there was a tree that had come down from the other side of the perimeter fence, taking out a neighbouring plot holders shed, and laying across most of their plot.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The site manager is pretty efficient so I expect the tree will be gone soon, although I’m not sure the shed is repairable.

Music From The Book

On By TontowilliamsIn books3 Comments

I’ve just finished reading Ernest Cline’s “Armada”, it was okay but I enjoyed his first book “Ready Player One” more.

What I liked about Armada was the Links it makes to sci-fi and other films and tv of my childhood in the 70’s & 80’s. If you’re not familiar with Str Wars, Star Trek, Iron Eagle, Top Gun, Battlestar Galactica, you’ll probably not enjoy it at all.

It also leans heavily on a music playlist. Someone has created the playlist on Spotify, so if you’ve also read the book, you can listen to it here.